Jonathan Preminger

Jonathan Preminger is a Senior Lecturer in Management, Employment and Organisation at Cardiff Business School, where he also serves as director of the Employment Research Unit. His academic career spans multiple institutions across Israel and the UK, with a focus on labor relations within complex political contexts.

His educational background includes a PhD from Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, an MA from Tel-Aviv University, and a BMus from Edinburgh University, reflecting an interdisciplinary foundation that informs his scholarly approach.

Preminger's research centers on industrial relations and unionising within broader social and political frameworks, with particular expertise in employee ownership and alternative organisational forms. His work critically examines democracy, voice, and participation in organisations, especially how power dynamics operate in workplace settings. A distinctive aspect of his scholarship explores the intersection of ethnonationalism and labor relations, as evidenced by his book Labor in Israel: Beyond Nationalism and Neoliberalism (2018).

His recent publications reveal a consistent focus on workplace democracy, employee ownership models, and the challenges faced by noncitizen workers in ethnonational contexts. The scholarship demonstrates methodological diversity, employing both theoretical frameworks and empirical case studies from Israel and beyond, with increasing attention to comparative perspectives across the MENA region.

Preminger actively contributes to professional academic communities as a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy, Academic MCIPD, and co-convener for the Work, Employment and Economic Life research stream of the British Sociological Association. He also participates in the Society for the Advancement of Socio-Economics, British Universities Industrial Relations Association, International Labour and Employment Relations Association, and Israel Sociological Society.

As an educator, Preminger supervises PhD students and teaches courses including Employment Relations, International Business Environment, International Human Resource Management, Managing in Multicultural Organisations, and Human Resource Management: Context & Strategy. His supervisory interests focus on alternative organisational forms emphasizing workplace democracy, industrial relations developments, and employment studies in the MENA region.

His leadership of the Employment Research Unit provides institutional structure for his collaborative work on labor market dynamics, workplace organization, and the evolving nature of employment relations in contemporary economies.